food blog love: food. weekly. (an interview)

food. weekly. is a food blog written by a college friend of mine. we met in a 'writing for the media' class, where we discovered a shared love of dry humor and cynicism. we share other interests too, of course. like coffee. food. friends.

her name is emily.
emily is a writer.

emily has written for and interned with geez magazine, where she is currently a sections editor for letters. at the moment, she works in the arts industry, while exploring - and loving - the awesomeness of domesticity in southern manitoba with her husband, taylor. at the moment they are experimenting with weekday vegetarianism. you can read about her thoughts on that here.

samosas*

emily has graced my blog with her presence by answering a few questions i asked her over email:

me:
what's your day job? do you love it?

emily:
By day, I work for an Arts Council in rural Manitoba. I'm officially the administrative assistant, but the bulk of my days are spent running their concert series as well as their volunteer program. I work with some really awesome people, and I love being able to bring concerts and live theatre to people who might not otherwise experience it. My office runs in a system of organized chaos, and sometimes the chaos wears me out. That's one of the reasons I started the blog, to have a reason to do things that relax me - writing and baking!

why did you decide to start blogging about food? what was your inspiration?

I could spend days reading food blogs and searching recipes online. I have years-old food magazines that I pull out and look through. I love creating something that others can enjoy. Cooking and baking are somethings that I find really relaxing, so after a particularly stressful day at work, I made biscotti and started the blog. It's an outlet for my food obsessions and my stress levels.

cranberry white chocolate biscotti*

what's the weirdest food you've experimented with?

I honestly can't think of a weird food that I have tangled with. I do have a tendency to make substitutions in recipes that seem logical to me...but really don't work. I made peanut butter rice crispie bars once with corn flakes. It seemed to work perfectly....until they cooled. I had a pan of corn bricks that I spent 20 minutes chipping from the pan.

favorite dessert?

A really ooey-gooey, smothered-in-icing cinnamon bun would be my top pick for dessert any day.

if you had to choose: chocolate cake or french fries?

My husband would love to eat chocolate cake day after day, so he would probably be upset to hear me say french fries. There is this great little diner about 20 minutes away that serves the best homemade fries. So good.

top 3 places you want to travel to purely for culinary reasons:

My top three culinary travel destinations would be:

1. Seattle. If for no other reason than to visit Pikes Place Market and sip on some fresh coffee.

2. Vancouver, BC. There seems to be a lot of really cool, trendy food shops and eateries there that I would love to explore. (And Joey could show me some of them!)

3. Any farmers market. Going to a good farmers market is like my personal disney world. I love to look at the all the stalls, buy fresh, local produce, and if I'm really lucky a lovely, fresh bouquet of flowers. It's the perfect day.

homemade chicken soup*

favorite food blog: (of course mine, wink wink, but you aren't allowed to use it)

(No fair! I was going to pick your blog!)
TasteSpotting is my (2nd) favourite foodie site to visit. It's not a food blog per say, but a catalogue that is updated daily with awesome finds from a variety of food blogs. I've found so many awesome new recipes to try, and discovered some great new blogs in the process.

what's the one food item you refuse to eat no matter what the circumstance?

I really can't handle any sort of weird cut of meat. If someone put beef tongue or sheep brain in front of me I would probably lose it. I'm grossed out even thinking about it.

--

homemade whoopie pies*

thanks emily for the interview! you will have to come visit me in vancouver, and we can try all my favorite joints as well as start on my list of places-yet-to-eat-at. also, you would love the farmers' markets here. and i mean LOVE them.

so check out food.weekly. and comment on emily's blog if you have any comments or questions for her!

*all photos in this post courtesy of emily's husband, taylor, who happens to be a photographer inspiration to me. check out his website or follow his blog. his 'squares' portrait series are particularly awesome.

smitten

i am in love.

...with a new blog i discovered when i was searching for a new and amazing brownie recipe. i not only found a new and amazing brownie recipe, but i found a food blog i can obsess over for the rest of my life.

smitten kitchen is an all-around beautiful blog. the layout is clean and attractive; the written content is dry (not dry boring, dry in a good way), smart, humorous; the photos are beautifully lit, gorgeous, and make me awestruck with indecisiveness as to which recipe to start with (there are thousands and i want to make them all); and the recipes, the recipes are well categorized and well written. and like i said, i can't decide which recipe to try first. homemade pop tarts? chocolate souffle cupcakes with mint cream? oh the agony...

(photo by smitten kitchen)

these oatmeal, chocolate chip and pecan cookies, for instance, are giving me a sudden urge to start baking cookies. (this may sound strange coming from someone who loves to bake, but i find cookie baking tiresome... who wants to spend the time doling out cookie clumps when with brownies you can pour the whole damn thing in the pan and be done with it?)

smitten kitchen is written and photographed out of a tiny kitchen in new york by a woman named deb. there is an odd correlation between new york, great photography, and foodie blogs. weird. i used to wonder what the deal was about new york that everyone would always gush about. over the past couple years, my curiosity has been slowly and subtly inching new york higher and higher on my extensive list of places to travel to.

p.s. the new and amazing brownie recipe i found was amazing and i can't wait to make them again. smitten kitchen calls them 'best cocoa brownies' and i have to agree with her.

here are a couple of (my) photos of said deliciousness:

meandering appetites

meandering appetites

i have been bugging my friend matt for a while now about starting a food blog. we went to college together, but i only discovered (with sadness - honestly, i could have done with some delicious home-cooked meals in college) how skilled he was in the kitchen a year after i'd left college and left manitoba behind. he made me fettucine alfredo, from scratch. it was the simplest, most amazing meal ever, that i left regretting all those years i didn't know that butter was the answer to everything. i have been wanting to blog about making alfredo sauce for a while now, but haven't gotten around to it. maybe i'll just wait for matt to write about it, and i'll just link it here.

(photo by matt o)

anyway. i got distracted by all that butter talk. and the photo of chicken curry that looks like butter chicken, which really makes me salivate. matt just started his food blog (finally!) and i am already an avid follower. not only is he a foodie, but he's the type of person that has the full set of jamie oliver cookbooks at home. and actually reads them. and uses them. yeah. so check out his blog: meandering appetites.

strawberry shortcake cupcakes

yum, seriously.

(photo is copyright of a.meadowlark & taken from here)

check out aleta's blog: the omnomicon
or specifically, her strawberry shortcake cupcakes